I was what you would call a hellraiser as a kid. I passed 1st through 4th grade on trial and failed the 5th grade.
I think they only let me out of 5th grade the second time because they wanted me out of there. I burned down a trailer in Roswell, NM. On Barksdale Air Force Base (BAFB), I helped destroy a couple of million dollars worth of construction equipment, which delayed the opening of new barracks and a new hospital by several months. I accomplished all this before my 13th birthday.
In the 6th grade, I stabbed a bully in the back and shoved another bully’s arm through a plate glass door, nearly severing his forearm. Yes, I had an angry and violent temper. Later in my life, my mom showed me a letter she kept from the BAFB Base Commander that stated that if my dad didn’t get control of his delinquent dependent, his dependent could be excluded from the base. My mom told me that meant my dad could be dishonorably discharged from the USAF.
What turned me from an out-of-control person to the pleasant, good-looking, and humble person you know today? A teacher who paid attention.
In the second semester of 9th grade, a teacher noticed I did well in some classes and very poorly in others. She sent a note home to my parents about getting my eyes checked. Yep, it turned out I was severely near-sighted AND color-blind. Being a Webster, from the 1st through both times in the 5th grade, I was always seated in the back row of the classroom. I couldn’t see anything the teacher was doing. A concerned teacher and glasses changed me.
All of this is the reason I am so passionate about vision screening. I want to help kids not have a miserable, angry, and possibly violent childhood because no one knows they can’t see what is happening in the classroom or life. Thank you, fellow Lions, for helping kids have a more normal childhood and successful school years through your vision screening service.
If we only change one child’s life, we have changed the world.
Remember, Life is for Service.
Lion Webster
